After losing the first two games to the lowly Seattle Mariners, the Mets came back to take the finale. They followed that up by pounding the Yankees 15-6 with Carlos Delgado having a good week in that one game. Unfortunately neither Delgado nor the Mets could capitalize on this.
Following those two wins the Mets have now lost the next two to the Yankees. The Yankees won the second game on Friday 9-0, pounding the Mets, getting a measure of revenge for the 15-6 loss. It is yesterday’s game, however, that bothers me. Again, we see Johan Santana pitch adequately, pitch good enough to get a win but ending up with a loss. Certainly part of the problem was the walks by Santana and part was the offense that has again decided to go on vacation (Wright, Beltran and Delgado were a combined 1 for 11).
The problem is, Santana is not an adequate pitcher, he is supposed to be among the elite. The Mets did stake Santana to a 1-0 lead but then Johan allowed the Yankees to score three runs over six innings before the Mets added one more run for a final of 3-2 Yankees. Santana allowed three earned runs over six innings. That is an ERA of 4.5 for the game. By today’s standards, those numbers are acceptable. They are clearly far from dominant.
When the Mets signed Santana, they felt this came as close as possible to ensure they would never lose five in a row or more, Santana would stop the losing streak. In 17 starts for them, Santana is 7-7 and the Mets 9-8. Again, these numbers are acceptable, they are even slightly better than what the team has done as a whole. Clearly they are not the numbers of someone believe to be the best pitcher in baseball (or at least one of them). Right now I don’t even think he is the best pitcher on the Mets. I think that distinction belongs to John Maine who has excellent numbers this year (and for his tenure as a Met) when it comes to leading the Mets to victory following a loss.
Until they prove me wrong, I will continue to say it: “This team is in sad shape and clearly not very good”.
Let’s Go Mets!
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